Registration of printing-plates, &amp;c.



E. E. NOVOTNY.

REGISTRATION 0F PRINTING PLATES APPLICATION FILED MAY 2o.- me. IIEIIEwEnma. I2. 1918.

, &c.

vao

' a press.

EVIIL E. NOVOTNY, OF RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 J'. STOGDELLSTOKES, 0F

MGORESTOWN, NEWJ'ERSEY.

REGISTRATION 0F PRINTING-PLATES, &o.

Application led May 20, 1916, Serial No. 98,917.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, EMIL E. NoVoTNY, a citizen of the United States,residing at Riverside, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in vRegistration ofPrinting-Plates, &c., of which the following is a specification.

VThis invention relates to the manufacture of a printing plate from amold by such a method that the plate may be brought at once into aproper position of exact registration on a printing or supporting base,such as the cylinder of a printing press, in the case of a curved plate,or the flat bed of a press in the case of a flat printing plate, and'furthermore such plate when so registered or positioned may be locked byany suitable means, said printing plate preferably during the moldingoperation having certain indicatin means formed thereon which corresponto indicate means on the bed, support or saddle for the plate, s0 thatthe platemay be instantly and accurately positioned in any selectedlocation on the surface of the bed by causingthe indicating means of theplate to coincide with those on the bed, support or saddle-that is tosay, the plate may be interchangeably located on its bed or support. Inthe printing art, as is well known, an infinite variety of printing mustbe done on For instance, the margins from the printed matter' to theedges of the sheets in size and makeup;

te registration, as l may diifer with different classes of work; theplates, cuts or bodiesof type may differ a particular job may berequired to be printed in dierent superimposed colors; and numerousother factors or conditions well known to printers and pressmen mayexist which will necessitate locating the printing element or body, suchas the plate, cut or body of type 1n a particular position upon thesupporting part or bed of the press, and this is commonly referred to asregistration. Usually the opera.- tion of attaining proper register on apress requires so much calculation, in the absence of available meansfor accurate measurement, that the expenditure of a great deal of timeand labor on the part of a skilled pressman, with the consequentexpense, is unavoidable.

. With my invention I obviatea this tedious and costly operation ofobtaining accurate am enabled to accomplish Specification of LettersPatent.

Patented Ust. l, 1918.

Renewed February 12, 1918. Serial No. 216,785.

this end by my method of preparing the mold and printing plate so thatthe completed printing plate may be instantly and exactly fitted in theproper position on the support or bed.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a -portion of a bed or supportwith the saddle connected therewith, a printing plate registered on thesaddle and a sheet of paper located above the printing plate.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a type form or body of type locked in thechase.

Fig. 3 is a view in elevation showing the formation of a mold from theform of type illustrated in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of a casting box intended toillustrate the positioning ofthe mold in the casting box preparatory tomaking the plate.

Fig. 5 is a View partly in cross section and partly in elevation showingthe making of the plate from the mold in the casting box.

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view taken through the printing plate andillustrating the uniformly spaced, equi-distant bosses on the back ofthe plate.

In order to obtain the rapid and exact registration of the printingpla-te upon its support on the press I provide means for enabling theplate to be instantly applied to such support so that the margin of theprinting portion or type matter ofthe plate will coincide with themarginal line, imaginary or actual on the paper or sheet being fed intoprinting relation to such plate. For example, if it is desired to printon a sheet Iso that a blank margin of 1 inchf will exist between theprinted matter and the edge or edgesof the sheet, I provide means bywhich the plate may be so located on its support in the press, relativeto the sheet being operated upon, that this margin will be obtainedwithexactitude without the necessity of frequent trials to secure properalinement or registration. Of course where l speak of the paper marginor margins it is to be understood that this is to include various kindsof margins as are encountered in printing, as hereinbefore mentioned,such as those relating to column or cut arrangements, superimpositionyof colors when necessary, border margins and the like.

As hereinbefore set forth one manner in which my purpose may beaccomplished is to provide a plate support of the press, such as aformed cylinder, or a flat bed, as the case maybe, with certainindicating means which are adapted .to ,coincide with certain otherindicating 'means formed on: the printin plate, preferably located atthe back thereo. occupying a certain predetermined position relative tothe printing portion or printing margins at the front face of the plate,that is to say to the top section of the plate.

The indicating means on the plate support of the press may be, as shownherein, in the nature o f small sockets spaced selected andpredetermined distances apart, for example 2 inches. The printing platemay be equipped with small projections or bosses likewise spaced apartdistances corresponding to the spaces socketed on the support, that isto say 2 inches. The bosses on the back of the printing plate, however,should be, as herein set forth located relative to the margins or edgesof the field of the printing portion at the front of the plate so thatwhen the plate is applied to the support with its bosses seated in thesockets of the support, the margins of the field of the printingportions of the plate will properly coincide with desired paper margins,imaginary or actual, on the sheet to be printed upon.

ln practising my invention l preferably proceed as follows, and in orderto make my purpose clear l will select a concrete case or example of theap lication of the invention in connection wit 1 a flat printing plateto be used on a press having a flat bed or support.

Let us assume, for example, that we desire to apply to the printing bed1 in a particular position thereon, a plate 2 having a printing area of8 by 10 inches shown at 3, and that the ,sheet of paper i to be printedby this plate is 10 by 12 inches, so that the printed sheet will show amargin 5 of one inch at all sides. l take a body of type 6 which is 8 by10 inches and lock up` in the chase 7 therewith two cutting rules 8 atright angles to each other, each spaced one inch from the type matter.`When the mold 9 is made from this type body the cutting rules willeither score two cutting lines at right angles to each other on themarginal face portions of the mold 9, thus forming indications for/cutting or trimminthe mold, or will entirely cut or trim onin theseedges of the mold, so that the type forming matter l0 of the mold willbe set in one inch from each of these edges 11. lf one edge 11 of themold is to be changed in the casting box C, as is desirable, an extrawidth of margin, say, onequarter of an inch may be left at one sideofthe mold for this purpose.

When the mold 9 has been thus trimmed it is clamped in the casting box Cwith the trimmed right" angled edges 11 of the mold abutting against theadjacent sides 18 of the casting nox. ln other words, as the casting4ing of the relative box is usually much larger than the mold, becauseone casting box is used to make printing plates of different sizes, Isnugly fit the mold in one corner of the casting box. This castin box isprovided with a core plate 14C which has the face 15 provided with` Ydepressions or sockets 16 spaced selected and preferably uniformdistances apart, say, two

lng box and depressing the core plate.

against the plastic material and also the mold. rljhe result is thatbosses or projections 19 are formed 0n the back 20 of the printingplate. Considering the back 20 of the plate, these bosses 19 will bespaced two inches apart relative to each other, with the marginal rowsof bosses also two inches from the edges of the plate, but consideringthe front or printing face 21 of the plate, these marginal rows ofbosses will lie inward one inch from the marginal printing lines.Furthermore, the sockets 16 of the core plate of the casting box andConsequently the bosses,

19 made on the back of the printing plate are made to correspond orstandardized with sockets 22 formed in the bed or saddle l of the press,that is the bed or saddle 1 has `formed in its outer face sockets spacedtwo inches apart to receive the bosses of the printing plate. i

Now, it will be evident that the marginal trimming lines or edges on themold are also the marginal printing lines on the paper, or represent theedges of the paper, and that therefore the finer dimension rather thanthe rough possible shiftable dimension provided for by the bosses on theplate and the sockets in the bed or saddle-on a printing press isfurther minutely dimensioned by the shiftpositions of the bosses of theplate and the printing margins on the front or face ofthe plate.

ln the casting of the printing plate, core screws 23 are preferablyprojected through the sockets in the core plate to form screw bores 2ain the bosses of the plate, so that suitable fastening screws,preferably hollow, may be used to secure the plate bosses in the socketsof the saddle.

lt will be noted that my invention e1nbraces this. Given a printingplate having the back thereof provided with indications or markings suchas the bosses constitute, which correspond in spacing and relativelocation to indications or markings on the plate support or bed thesockets constitute,

the plate may be instantly and accurately registered on the bed on thepress, such as fio " ent exemplification of the invention I have shownand described the bosses of the plate and the sockets of the bed orsaddle asconstituting the corresponding or related indicating orlocating means for obtaining the.

proper register of the plate on the bed or saddle, but it will beunderstood that I do not limit myself to this nor to the formation ofthe indicating means on the plate during the molding operation, as otherindicating means, such as surface lines or points or depressions mightbe lused on the plate and its supportin saddle or bed, and these mightbe applie to the plate after as well as before it is made. Furthermore,the invention is applicable to plates orV printing bodies made otherwisethan by molding. The example and explanation given herein is merely byway of illustration. I

What I claim is:

1. The herein'described method of registration which comprises providinga printingl plate with a registration indication occupying apredetermined position relative to a marginal printing line of suchplate and applying a plate t0 a plate support on the press with suchindication so positioned relative to the indication of the plate supportof the press that the marginal printing line of the printing plate willcoincide with a selected line of the paper printed upon.

2. The herein described method of registration which comprises providinga nonprinting portion of a printing plate with a plurality of spacedregistration indications, certain of which indications occupy apredetermined position relative to a marginal printing line of theplate, and applying a plate to a plate support on the press with suchindications so positioned relative to an indication on the plate supportof the press that amarginal printing line of the printing plate willcoincide with a selected printing line of the paper printed upon.

3. The herein described method. which comprises providing a printingplate support with spaced registration indications and providing theprinting plate with similarly spaced registration indications adapted tocorrespond with those of the support, certain of the registrationindications of the printing plate being spaced a predetermined ormeasured distance 'from the printing margin of the plate to cause suchprinting margin to coincide with a line margin of the paper when theplate is appliedl to the support. y 4. The herein described method ofregistration or positioning printing body on a,

support which comprises providing nonprinting portions of the body withindicating means adapted to correspond andselec tively register with aplurality of ,spaced indicating means on this support.

5. The herein'described method of registration 0r positioning a printingbody on a support whichY comprises. providing a body with a plurality ofspaced indicating means adapted tov correspond and selectively register'lwith a plurality of similarly spaced indicating means on a supportwhereby said printing body may be accurately registered i "on thesupport in anyldesired location.

6. The herein described method of registering orpositioning a printingbody on its support which comprises providing a back face of a printingbody with a plurality of spaced indicating means adapted to correspondto andA selectively register with a plurality of Similarly spacedindicating means on the printing or adjacent face of the support.'v

7. The herein described method of registering or positioning a printingplate on 'its support which comprises providing al back face Aof aplate` with a kplurality of uniformly spaced.- projections vadapted tocorrespond to and selectively coincide with a plurality of similarly'spaced sockets or recesses in the support.

8. 'Ihe herein described method of preparing for registration andregistering a printing plate on its support which consists in molding aplate and forming indicating means on the back thereof by means of adevice having spaced indications corresponding or standardized to spacedindications on the support and subsequently tting the plate on the4support to cause the indications of the lplate to coincide with theindications ofthe support.

9. The herein described method of registering or positioning'aprintingbody on its support which comprises providing a body with a plurality ofspaced indicating

